Is The Upside Kevin Hart’s Oscar Movie?

It’s always fascinating to watch an actor known for comedy explore their darker, more serious side in a drama. Against-type roles for funny people have come in many different forms in the past: an AIDS-themed legal drama, a Peter Weir fable about a man who doesn’t know he’s on a TV show, whatever Dane Cook was doing in Mr. Brooks. But the most reliable way that a comedian can show us that they’ve got deeper, more contemplative aspects is in a feel-good dramedy, some kind of uplifting film where they can be funny and sweet, misty-eyed and mirthful. Thus, along comes The Upside, premiering here at the Toronto International Film Festival. It’s a movie that offers the biggest comedian working right now, Kevin Hart, a chance to reveal previously unseen dimensions.

There was buzz leading up to the festival that the film could carry Hart to a new plane of his career. Not really upwards—the guy sells out stadiums, and you can’t get much higher than that—but certainly laterally, into the realm of Respected Actors. (Because comedy still doesn’t get the respect it deserves, especially if those comedies feature people of color.) The film first screened in Toronto on Friday, where it received a warm response, arriving as a certified crowd-pleaser. There were whispers of the movie getting an awards qualifying run, and suddenly the prospect of Kevin Hart getting an Oscar nomination—something a friend has been saying is an inevitably for a few years now—suddenly seemed tangible.

So, I ventured to a screening midday on Saturday, curious to see how Hart fares—and, honestly, just needing to wash my brain with something, anything, after sitting through the toxic, nasty mess that is I, Tonya. (I seem to be in the minority on that one.) What I saw was familiar but pleasant. Hart plays Dell, a recent parolee (he was in prison for vaguely alluded to crimes like carrying a concealed weapon and theft) in need of a job who somehow winds up the caregiver for a quadriplegic zillionaire named Phillip (Bryan Cranston). Dell is caustic and uncouth, Philip cranky and despondent. It’s a dynamic we’ve seen plenty of times before in movies like this, most recently in the 2016 romantic weepy Me Before You. There’s also a tinge of Pretty Woman in the film’s appreciation of the transporting power of opera.

Those similarities may just be coincidences, though. The film is actually based on a true story, and was first turned into a French feature film in 2011. That film is The Intouchables, and is the highest grossing non-English-language film ever made. So The Upside has a lot of pedigree, and responsibility, behind it. I’d say the movie itself half lives up to all that. The film, directed by competent journeyman Neil Burger (imagine directing Limitless, The Illusionist, and Divergent), has a nice polish to it, and clever bits of back-and-forth dialogue are sprinkled throughout. (Paul Feig is one of the credited writers.) Nicole Kidman lends her Kidman-y glow to an amiable supporting part, and Cranston and Hart enliven what’s become a pretty hoary film rapport. It’s a perfectly nice movie, if you can get past some sticky social politics in terms of race, class, and economics. (Just keep telling yourself: they learn from each other, it’s reciprocal, etc.)

But is “nice” what Kevin Hart needs in order to get himself in the Oscar hunt? (To be clear, there is no actual evidence that Kevin Hart is trying to get into the Oscar hunt. This is a narrative we’re grafting onto him; it’s entirely possible he doesn’t care. Again, he sells out sports arenas.) I don’t know that it is. The Upside maybe isn’t enough of a stretch, the degree of difficulty isn’t quite high enough. Hart’s mostly doing comedy in the film, with a only few scenes here and there—when Dell is trying to win back his distant son’s affections, or having an angry sparring session with Phillip—that let him do new, serious things. He’s good in those scenes! But I’m just not sure they add up to the right weight.

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What The Upside does do, I think, is set up Hart for a dramatic follow-up, an as yet only imagined future film that could really get him mixed up in an Oscar narrative. He’s adept at switching off, or at least turning down, his comic verve when need be, in moments when we see a naturalistic actor emerging. There’s a lot of potential there, if that’s the route he wants to head down. Again, no one is saying he needs to, or even should—striving for that kind of recognition has driven many a previously likable, charming actor kind of insane. But if he does want it, The Upside proves that he’s up to the task. So if Kevin Hart ever opts to give up those comedy tour riches for a few months to film some dramatic little indie, you should probably pay attention to it. I know I will.